Chapter 1

BELLAMY

Bellamy anxiously looked into the horizon as the sun set, the fading light casting the fields in a golden hue. It was hard for him to just sit and wait. He had always been a man of immediate and direct action. At first, his ambitious and hard-lined personality had been a problem, especially in high school and college. Bellamy always got his work done, always did what he needed to succeed for himself and for Octavia but he had a hard time with authority figures or anyone who got in the way between him and his goals. Back then, his persona translated into a kind of recklessness, a wary rebellion that he alone understood. The upper classes, he felt made all the rules, rules that he and his sister had to live by. Rules that separated him and Octavia for two years in foster care after the overdose of their mother.

But that was before he inherited the ranch. A father he never knew had left it to Bellamy in his will, granting a new life for Bellamy and Octavia. At the time, Bellamy was 22 and a senior in college. They said he was too young to take on such a task but they (whoever they were) could have never been so wrong. All the qualities that made Bellamy a tough pill only made him a great a rancher. He dedicated his entire self to that ranch and it proved successful. The ranch became his ticket out to a future outside of partying and girls and given him a chance to provide for himself and his sister.

His sister.

His heart tightened in his chest as he thought of that afternoon. They had together been herding the cows into the evening pasture when something, he didn't know what, spooked them. Before he could do anything, his sister Octavia was badly trampled by a stampede of cows before she was able to get herself out of harm's way. Bell was no doctor but he could tell that at the very least, one arm was broken, hanging loosely and awkwardly at her side on her bed where he laid her.

But all he could do was wait.

Bellamy had heard earlier that year that there were a few medical practitioners who had set up a program where they were doing house calls outside of Austin to the ranches to help administer medical help as quickly as possible. He had smartly noted the phone number and stuck it on a Post- It underneath the house phone (they kept one in case their cell phone coverage was poor which it usually was). After bringing Octavia in, he had run and grabbed the yellow paper, blindly typing in the numbers on the house phone's key pad and demanded help.

The secretary on the other line had been annoyingly calm when she answered, jotting down his information and telling she would be sending Dr. Griffin over immediately and that the she was luckily only 20 minutes away due to another house call.

When Bellamy hung up the phone, he had felt no relief. He paced back and forth in the kitchen until he found himself standing on the front porch, watching the road as if he could will a doctor's car to appear there.

When it did, he had been staring so long that he almost thought he was imagining it but there it was, a small blue dot in the distance at first before it became a blue BMW in his driveway. A blonde woman in a white lab coat rushed out of the car, slamming the door so hard that the the vehicle jostled slightly. A tall, dark man in scrubs stepped out of the car as well and followed her as she ran up the steps and onto the porch.

"About damn time," Bellamy greeted her coarsely while leading her quickly into the house. "I thought these house call doctors were supposed to be fast."

"Never mind that," the woman said, her blue eyes glaring back at him for his comment, "where is she?"

Bellamy opened the door and led them into Octavia's room where the pretty brunette laid, moaning in pain. He wasn't surprised she that she hadn't passed out from the pain; his sister was made of pure steel.

The woman and man approached the bed quickly, checking his sister's vitals and injuries.

"My name is Dr. Clarke Griffin and this is my assistant, Wells Jaha, a nurse practitioner," Dr. Griffin said as she surveyed her sister, gently touching Octavia's arm and then prodding at the girl's ribs. "It looks like we have a few broken ribs here and a broken wrist. We are going to need to set the bone in her wrist back in place as soon as possible," Bellamy watched as Wells put some kind of liquid into a syringe, and stuck his sister's unbroken arm with its needle.

"Dr. Griffin will have to do this before the pain meds set in…" Wells gently but firmly. "I'm not sure if you will want to watch," Wells looked at Bellamy now, his eyes matching the serious tone in his voice. It wasn't going to pretty.

"I'm not going anywhere," Bellamy stated matter-of-factly. In fact, he moved over to his sister's unbroken wrist and held her hand. There was no way in hell he was leaving his sister when she needed him the most. "Octavia, did you hear what they said? It's going to hurt but I'm gonna be right here." Octavia looked at him, her lips set in a hard line.

"It will be over quickly," Bellamy noticed that Clarke looked into Octavia's eyes when she said this, asking for tacit permission. When Octavia nodded, Clarke took the broken limb into her hands and efficiently snapped it back into place. Octavia grimaced in pain but refused to make a sound.

"You are brave," Clarke responded gently with a small smile. Bellamy couldn't help but study her face in that moment. She was clearly gorgeous; there was never a day that Bellamy Blake wouldn't notice a beautiful girl walking into his home, even under these circumstances. Her eyes were an electric blue that changed from icy to warm with her emotions (and depending on which Blake she was dealing with). Her blonde hair curling in loose waves just a bit past her shoulders. Her brisk and well-to-do behavior bothered him but he couldn't help but notice how gentle she was with his sister.

At these thoughts Bellamy shook his hair out of his face; this was not the time for checking out the doctor.

After setting the wrist, Clarke and Wells bound Octavia's wrist and ribs carefully. The pain meds had slowly begun to set in and Octavia wavered between consciousness before dozing off. As the girl succumbed to sleep, Bellamy heard sirens and ran out to see an ambulance pulling into the driveway. Two paramedics, a lanky man with brown hair and a small woman with ginger-colored hair, made their way into the house.

"What's going on?" Bellamy exclaimed, "I didn't ask for an ambulance."

"Your sister dislocated her wrist when she broke it; she will probably need surgery. I did all I could here but we need to further examine her at the hospital," Clarke responded curtly.

"Well, I'm riding with her then, " Bellamy replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No," Clarke responded, "it's not a life or death situation; you can follow the ambulance with your car."

"To hell with that! I'm not going to just leave my sister alone. What happens when she wakes up and knows no one?"

"Don't speak to Clarke like that," Wells began but Clarke put a hand on his arm.

"She will be fine. She is in good hands with Jasper and Monroe; I personally asked for them when I first got the call about your sister's injuries." Clarke looked at him earnestly when she said this, clearly hoping that he would heed her direction without too much fuss.

Bellamy knew that she was making sense and that she was following protocol but he also knew that Octavia hated hospitals ever since their mother died in one after she overdosed. He was about to argue further and Clarke must have sensed that because she sighed heavily and said, "If it makes you feel better, you can ride with me."

Wells grumbled at this but the matter was settled.

As Octavia was wheeled into the ambulance on a stretcher (the image made Bellamy's stomach turn), the trio climbed into Clarke's luxurious car.

"Man," Bellamy exclaimed bitterly, "looks like being a doctor really pays off."

"Should it not?" Wells responded heatedly, "Clarke literally saves lives on the regular. Do you think she doesn't deserve a nice car for that?"

"As if she even got this herself. Let me guess; Mommy and Daddy got this shiny thing for you as a graduation present." Bellamy knew he was being a jerk but it was all he could do to keep his mind off of Octavia. He knew that she would be okay, but sometimes he fretted like a mother hen about her. He just couldn't help it. After years being separated in foster care, Bellamy was tired of being forcibly split from his sister.

It looked like he had hit the nail on the head with his comment too; Clarke was gripping the car wheel angrily, pressing her pink lips together tightly. Bellamy distantly thought about how soft those lips looked but pushed the thought away quickly. No doubt this girl, with her BMW, medical school degree and manicured nails had everything handed over to her like it was nothing.

"I'm right, aren't I, Princess?" Bellamy smirked.

"Don't call me that! You don't know anything about me or my life and I'm going to have to ask you to lay off, Mr... Mr uh"

"...The name's Blake. Bellamy Blake."